by SJB Gilmour
Out on the field, Mel flew to Jimbeaux and began hugging his neck and kissing his head. Jimbeaux crooned and nuzzled her gently. Mel was so happy to see her friend that she was blinking back tears. He’d grown so much and he was sooo handsome!
While a huge crowd of surprised and curious goblins massed behind The Nightcorps’ defensive line, Jimbeaux quickly brought Mel up to speed about the goings on back home.
‘Mautallius has Conundrum under complete control, Amixo,’ Jimbeaux told her. ‘I flew around The Nonagon yesterday. We can see the maze about the island and the empty plain about the base of the tower quite clearly, but for how long, we’re not sure. Mautallius is either doing it himself, or he’s getting Guild sorcerers to do it, but a new enchantment is growing to disguise the maze again. The top of the tower itself is hidden already.’
Mel nodded. ‘Probably lots of soldier crabs in that maze, I bet.’
Jimbeaux looked up at the glowing silver orb above them. ‘What are you going to do with that?’
Mel shrugged. ‘I dunno,’ she moaned, sitting down on the ground. She waved in the direction of the place in Jilde’s orbit where the original moon used to be. ‘I’m supposed to get it up there, but I don’t know how to.’
Jimbeaux smiled. ‘Tell me, Amixo,’ he asked, ‘how long can you hold your breath?’
Mel looked at him with surprise. ‘What am I gonna do? Fly out into space?’ She spread her arms out wide and nodded at the hundreds of mummy guardslins she had re-animated. ‘I brought that lot back to life, kinda. But that’s just simple necromancy. I’m not an astronaut.’
Jimbeaux grinned at her with a teasing glint in his eyes. ‘You can arm and attire yourself out of the silver within you. Can you not grow wings also?’
Mel looked at him with eyes wide. Then in exactly the same manner her cousin James did so frequently, she smacked her forehead.
Jimbeaux smiled at her. ‘Your teeth and fingernails have become fangs and talons,’ he observed. ‘Is that how you truly see yourself?’
Mel gaped at him. ‘Yeah, I guess,’ she admitted. She looked down at her hands. Jimbeaux was right. Her fingernails, which had once been pinkish-white, were now thick, pointed talons the colour of tarnished silver. She ran her tongue over her fangs and shook her head.
‘Why didn’t I think of that,’ she muttered. ‘How about this?’
Mel concentrated and felt her body begin to heat up with a surge of power. The wings depicted on the backs of what mortals imagined angels to look like, simply wouldn’t work. Mel knew enough about human anatomy to know that. Her spine simply could not take such a strain. She grew another set of shoulders and this time, instead of arms, produced a set of wings that arced up above her shoulders and then reached back down to the ground. These wings had no feathers or scales. Instead, they were smooth, more like those of a bat.
As her wings grew, the rest of her body shrank to waif-like proportions. Her face became gaunt and severe. Her arms and legs became bone-thin but Mel knew they were every bit as strong as they had been before. Her waist was impossibly thin and her ribs showed through her chest as though her body was a mere skeleton wrapped with silver skin.
Jimbeaux shook his head. ‘Amixo, you would not be stable like that.’ He nodded at her wings. ‘They must be longer and you will need some form of ballast.’
Mel looked down at her ankles. She concentrated again and sprouted long spurs from her calves.
Jimbeaux nodded. ‘Much better. Now, let us tune these new appendages of yours to your body.’
Together Melanie and her former familiar spent the next hour lengthening this, shortening that and changing the shape of her wings. The crowd that came to watch the spectacle continued to grow.
Eventually Jax had to stake steps. ‘Mog,’ he commanded, ‘we can’t command that lot to move, but our regular infantry will still obey orders. Bring in enough guardslins to keep that crowd at bay. I want a good hundred metres between those mummies and the onlookers. We’ll stay here where we’ve got a better view of whatever the hell she’s doing out there.’
Mog quickly began issuing orders and quite soon, the crowd, now very noisy indeed, was being held back, well away from the defensive perimeter The Nightcorps were holding.
Jerrit’s mood had gone from outrage to awe as he watched Jimbeaux instruct Melanie. ‘It’s happening, Jax. It’s really happening!’
Jax was feeling a little numb. His charge, young Mistress Hazelwood was out there with a dragon, turning herself into some kind of monster, and surrounded by a division of the mummies of many of Jilde’s fallen heroes — some of whom had been dead for thousands of years.
‘Sire?’ he asked, blinking.
‘What do you think she’ll be able to do with those wings?’
Jax blinked at his ruler. ‘Fly, Your Majesty?’
Jerrit beamed at him. ‘And that floating ball of silver is going with her! She’s going to do it, Jax! She’s going to return our moon!’ He gazed in wonder at Melanie, who was now beginning to make her first short attempt at flight.
At that moment, Jonex managed to push through the regular guardslins and was rushing towards Jax and Jerrit with a glowing yellow crystal ball in his claw.
Jax spied the goblin and groaned. The officious fop administrator was disliked by just about every goblin in the palace, especially those in the Imperial Guard. Jax stepped out to stand in Jonex’s way, blocking the officious goblin’s path.
‘Captain!’ the uptight goblin courtier exclaimed. ‘I must speak with Mistress—’
‘Shuttup, Jonex,’ Jax ordered. ‘Go and get back behind the line!’ He nodded at Mog who had returned and was also standing between Jonex and Jerrit.
Mog nodded, grinning. He grabbed hold of Jonex and began dragging the goblin away.
‘Your Majesty!’ the goblin appealed to Jerrit over his shoulder as Mog marched him away.
This was probably a mistake. Jerrit didn’t turn his attention away from the scene out on the field. He merely waved at Jonex as though he was an annoying bug.
Mog took that as a cue and cuffed him on the mouth with one gauntleted claw. ‘You were told to shut up!
Jonex squirmed desperately. ‘Please! It’s Mistress Hazelwood’s parents! They’re—’ Whatever they were, he didn’t get to say as Mog clamped one claw over Jonex’s mouth and continued to march him away. Once he’d handed Jonex over to several of his fellow soldiers, Mog returned to stand by his captain’s side. By that time, Jerrit and Jax, as well as the rest of the crowd, were watching in awe as Melanie, glowing white hot, was flying gracefully around the arena.
Jimbeaux was working hard to keep up with her. While Mel was able to glide at will, he had to beat his diamond-scaled wings hard to keep up. As Mel flew around, so too did the ball of liquid silver she had created. After several circuits of the arena, Mel landed in front of Jerrit to a thunderous applause.
‘Most impressive, Mistress,’ Jerrit told her politely. He nodded at her wings. ‘Are these new wings of yours a permanent feature?’
The power that Mel felt inside herself was incredible. She knew now that she could command every molecule of silver within her body and outside it. She willed herself back into her normal, human appearance. Well, as normal as she was now used to. Her new hair, teeth and nails were back to their new silver shapes. She allowed her wings to flow back into her body, which filled out accordingly, then clad herself once more in her silver and silver-mesh armour. The only thing she did not alter much was the brace she wore about her wrist that hid her half of The Star of Planes.
‘I dunno. This feels like normal,’ she told Jerrit. She grew her wings out of her back and legs again. ‘This feels kinda cool, but these wings are gonna get in the way if I try to use any kind of blade, even if I tuck them back like this.’ She folded her wings tightly behind her.
Jerrit looked at her quizzically. ‘Your body mass seems to have remained the same.’ He nodded at her thin arms and sunken abdomen. ‘Isn’t that un
comfortable?’
Mel shrugged and made a face. ‘Nuh,’ she said looking down at her body. ‘I could do without being so flat, but I guess a girl can’t have everything.’
Jerrit looked at her chest with a faintly embarrassed expression. ‘Goblin females do not have the same upper torsos as humans, Mistress. If I may say so, now you appear more like a goblin with wings. Perhaps some more modest garb would be appropriate?’
Mel raised one eyebrow and shrugged. ‘Okay,’ she muttered. She looked about at the gathered crowd. There were still millions of silver particles glowing on and in them. She shut her eyes and willed some more of them to come to her. Her body filled out until she was not so gaunt. Where her muscles had thinned to almost nothing, she grew them back. She kept her waist thin but allowed her upper torso and face to become more womanly. Then she dressed herself in the same silver armour she’d worn before, only more open at the back to allow her wings free movement.
‘How’s this?’ she asked him.
Jerrit grinned at her. ‘Much better, Mistress.’ He looked at the molten ball of silver that was floating above her as always. ‘Tell me, what do you plan to do with that now?’ He could hardly contain his excitement.
Mel looked up at the sky. It was early evening and the sky was beginning to darken. Soon, it would be much darker still. She could feel exactly where the old moon had been. Now she knew what she had to do. More importantly, she knew how. She could feel the pull of oxygen against the silver of her body as it tried to bond with it. Instead of keeping the two elements separate, Mel willed the silver within her and on the surface of her skin to bond with as much oxygen as it could. In a few moments she had turned from gleaming white-ish silver to the dull, blackened colour of oxidised silver. Her skin tingled and her lungs felt as though they were full of dust. But, she didn’t need to breathe. She could feel her body re-absorbing the oxygen from the silver as it needed it.
‘I’ll be back soon,’ she told Jerrit. She reached out and grabbed the floating orb of silver and held it tightly in her left hand. Then she leaped into flight. She flew around the arena once and shot straight up into the sky. The gathered crowd that now numbered in the hundreds of thousands, looked up at The Nightsmith as she flew into their night sky.
Jerrit watched her for a moment and decided to try to get past the immobile Nightcorps. They glared at him and blocked his path.
‘Let us through!’ Jax commanded the mummies. There was an uncomfortable pause and then they stepped aside to let the goblin captain and his emperor through their line. They walked up to stand beside Jimbeaux, and all three stared up into the sky, watching Mel disappear into the heavens.
Mel’s flight upwards was fast. She could scarcely believe how fast she was going. The silver in her eagerly obeyed her will to carry her up higher and higher, faster and faster. The faster she flew, the more exhilarated she felt and the hotter she became.
Her flight out from the atmosphere became easier too as the air became thinner and thinner. Finally, when she realised that there was no more air about her and she was actually in space, did she look down at Jilde. The brightness of the planet stung her eyes. She closed them and allowed herself to drift until she felt that she was exactly where the old moon had been. The silver ball in her hand began to buzz with excitement.
In that position, Mel had to turn around so that the sun was behind her. Its light and heat was incredible — far hotter than that produced by Jeff’s forge. She hung in space for a few heartbeats, then let go of the ball.
It was then that she understood the true nature of silver. It was a solitary element. It could be smelted with other metals to become alloys or oxidised, but it preferred to be apart from all elements. It could move more freely in the body of an enchanted being, but even then, it would only stay there so long as it had to until it could follow moonlight back to a place where it could settle and attract more silver to itself.
‘Well, off you go,’ she silently commanded the silver ball. ‘Gruber existum!’ The spell translated simply to “grow and live!”
The ball shimmered and began to glow hot and bright in the full light of Jilde’s sun. And, imperceptibly it began to grow as tiny traces of silver arrived from the living goblins down on the surface of Jilde. Mel knew that process would take an incredibly long time if it were to just continue at that rate. She wasn’t sure how long she could stay out there, however. She could feel her body absorbing the trapped oxygen within herself, and though she still felt okay, she knew that supply would soon run out. She had to hurry.
She drifted out and away from the orb, gently hanging in the nothingness of space. When she was well away from her living ball of silver, she turned to face the gleaming goblin planet and spread her wings out wide. The tiny trickle of silver molecules drifting up to the ball was swamped in a much bigger and more powerful surge. Every particle of silver Mel could see down there on the surface of Jilde began to rise up, finally free of the planet, to join the only other living thing, other than Mel herself, out there in Jilde’s orbit.
Mel’s new moon was now growing noticeably. After a few minutes, it had doubled in size. After an hour, it was about the size of a car. Now bigger, the light it reflected was also stronger, and so too was the stream of silver it drew from the goblins of Jilde. Mel was running out of oxygen. She’d gone from blackened, tarnished silver, to gleaming white again. It was time to return to the surface.
Flying down was not as easy as flying up. Now, instead of wind, she was being buffeted by an incredible surge of silver particles. They rubbed against her as she flew down. The energy Mel felt was incredible. Down, she dove. Faster and faster and all the while, getting hotter and hotter.
The Nightsmith could not burn. Her entire body and wings were glowing white-hot, but still she would not burn. She knew she would never burn. The air around her and behind her however, did burn. As she shot downwards, a huge tail of fire followed her. The Nightsmith flew down and circled the city of Jildere twice. This slowed her down considerably. Then she tightened the circle to fly around the parade ground twice, slowing down even more. The fiery trail behind her died out and she swept down to land just where she had taken off. She stood there, panting deep breaths. Even though she had just demonstrated to herself that breathing wasn’t really necessary now she could contain oxygen within herself, she still relished the feel of air in her lungs.
The cheers from the goblins was deafening and seemed to go on for a very long time. None of them could feel the silver being pulled from their bodies, but they had noticed the ground shudder, and strange dust-storms rise up when Mel had begun summoning the silver from the planet. This small amount she had called, was infinitesimal compared to that which remained. Still, it was a start. Just as Jeff had mentioned, several enterprising priests from The Moon Cult had already erected enchanted coffers, into which goblins were hurling all the silver they could find. Inside the enchanted vats, the deadly metal melted and whirled about and began to boil away. Great wafts of silver steam and vapour rose from the bubbling coffers, and drifted up, up, up to join the gleaming new moon of Jilde.
It took Mel some time to cool enough for anyone to touch her except Jimbeaux, who nuzzled her with adoration. Mel grinned at him and rubbed his neck. Her fangs gleamed in the faint light of the new moon of Jilde.
There on the ground, she immediately felt right — complete. It was as if everything was where it was supposed to be. She could still feel the moon she had created, even though it was so far away, and she knew it was exactly where it should be. And, even more incredible, she realised that it was indeed alive. What it saw, out there in space as it circled Jilde and grew as it absorbed silver from its population and their coffers, she saw. What it knew, she knew.
Jerrit strode forward, closely followed by a retinue of more than a dozen guardslin officers, including Captain Jax. The Supreme Chancellor of The Mingus Consortium and Emperor of Jilde was grinning from pointy ear to pointy ear. He made his way towards Mel
as the crowd roared so loud the ground shook. That cheering, he knew, wasn’t for him.
‘Take this moment, Amixo!’ Jimbeaux urged her. ‘They will follow you now as they’ve followed no other!’ Apollo and Demeter echoed this sentiment.
Mel turned to General Apex, who for the first time since she had revived him and turned him into a mummy, showed any real emotion. Joy and exultation shone in his eyes.
‘All Hail The Nightsmith!’ Apex roared. The bellowed reply from his soldiers was thunderous. Soon the entire crowd was chanting ‘Nightsmith! Nightsmith!’
Realisation of what was about to happen dawned on Jerrit. He gaped at her in horror.
Mel didn’t miss a beat. She raised her hands up high in the air, spread her wings and waved about at the crowd. ‘Goblins of Jilde!’ she yelled as loud as she could. ‘You have a choice! Follow me or follow Jerrit!’
The roar shook the parade ground to its foundations. ‘Nightsmith! Nightsmith!’ the goblins chanted again and again, brandishing their weapons in salute. After several minutes of cheering and chanting, the goblins finally managed to bring themselves under some sort of control as Mel waved at them to quieten down. She turned to Jax, who was weeping openly with adoration.
‘I’m gonna need a two I C,’ she told him. ‘Want the job?’
Jax sank to his knees and bowed. ‘You’ve already named me your champion, Mistress. What more could I possibly ask for?’
Again, the goblin army roared with approval.
‘Now wait a bloody minute!’ Jerrit spluttered.
Mel grinned at Jax. ‘Get up, Marshal,’ she told Jax. ‘You’re going to need to find a job for his former emperorship here.’
Jax saluted smartly and wiped fresh tears from his face. ‘General perhaps, Majesty? And I’m unfamiliar with Field Marshal.’
Mel grinned. ‘Field Marshal trumps General.’
At her words, several goblins grabbed Jerrit. One snatched his crown from his head and, trembling, held it out to Mel.
